Aquinas High School boys soccer coach Ryan Capwell wanted to challenge his team this fall because he thought it had a chance to be special.
Coaches certainly want to make sure their players get pushed out of their comfort zones every season, but Capwell’s program began practicing in August with a real chance for its season to continue into November and end at Uilhein Soccer Park in Milwaukee for the second time in three years.
“We only lost a couple of key players from a really good team last year,” senior goalkeeper Jackson Knothe said after Monday’s practice at Fields for Kids. “We thought we could fill those roles and have a fun run (through the season).”
Capwell knew coaches and players would learn plenty from one of two games against Holmen and another one or two against Arcadia, but he wanted to find something new and unfamiliar to push the Blugolds, so he started asking around.
“We played (Marshfield) Columbus Catholic and (Stevens Point) Pacelli last year, and I asked them who was a top team in that conference, which was also our regional,” Capwell said. “I wanted that team on our schedule, and it was Amherst. We played them really early, and we beat them 4-2.”
That gave Aquinas a 3-0 start in what turned out to be a 16-2-4 season that has it playing in a WIAA Division 4 state semifinal against top-seeded Shoreland Lutheran (18-2-1) at Uihlein in an 11 a.m. semifinal on Thursday.
Obstacles followed, but the Blugolds maneuvered past them with good defense, opportunistic offense and the ability to learn from experiences that may not have been the best.
Aquinas encountered a two-game losing streak that set up its first meeting with Holmen. The Blugolds tied the Vikings in a scoreless game that brought back the confidence from before the losing streak, and it has remained with them ever since.
Aquinas enters the semifinal with a 12-0-4 record since a 1-0 loss to Marshfield Columbus on Sept. 7, and it has outscored its postseason opponents by an 8-2 margin. The Blugolds also turned the tables on the Dons for that Sept. 7 loss by beating them 2-0 in a sectional semifinal.
Beating Shoreland Lutheran, which has shut out 10 straight opponents and hasn’t lost since Sept. 5, will be a different kind of battle.
“They’ve probably been ranked first or second all year,” Capwell said of the Pacers, who have won state championships both times they’ve qualified (2007 and 2023). “I’m not completely sure what to expect, but I’m sure they look at our schedule and may not know a lot about the schools we play.
“So I think both teams are in the same position.”
But Capwell certainly understands the importance of marking players like senior midfielder Gavin Moore and junior forward Owen Hahn. Those two have combined for 55 goals and 38 assists this season. Moore has 31 goals and Hahn 26 assists.
It will be a challenge, but Aquinas has played well defensively all season. Knothe has allowed just five goals in more than 1,000 minutes with plenty of speed and talent in front of him.
“Jackson has very good instincts and is very aggressive, so any balls played inside the 18, more likely than not, he will beat anyone else to the ball,” Capwell said. “That might take away some opportunities for that tap-in goal that comes up.
“We also have to really good center backs in Simon Wieser and Jaedan Silcox and guys on the outside who do really well defensively but also do a great job of building our attack in Jonny Woolever and Caden Schams.”
The Blugolds have used that defense to keep them in position for a group of players who have been more opportunistic than anything. Senior Vincent Bahr has scored a team-high 17 goals, while senior David Onyeabor, junior Calin Smith and sophomore Connor Benz have scored five apiece.
“Composure, especially in the back, has been a big thing for us,” Bahr said. “It’s been important for all of us.
“There has also been a lot of positivity. Everybody has been positive and kept themselves level-headed during games.”
That may come from the experience many of these players have from qualifying for a state semifinal in 2022. The Blugolds lost that game 3-1 to Cristo Ray, but will bank on what they learned about playing in a big environment when they kick off against Shoreland Lutheran.
Junior midfielder Harrison Griffith, who has three goals and six assists, is one of those players making a second state appearance. So are Onyeabor, Bahr, Knothe, Wieser and Schams.
Griffth said that experience and following it with 11 victories in 2023 paved the way for big expectations this fall.
“We have a lot of guys who were a big part of that (state) team,” he said. “The goal (at the beginning of the season) was that we want to go back to state. That was our focus and our idea all season.
“It’s great to be able to go back.”
